Trait anxiety moderates the association between estradiol and dominance in women

Exogenous testosterone decreases men's personal distance in a social threat context

BACKGROUND

Testosterone can motivate human approach and avoidance behavior. Specifically, the conscious recognition of and implicit reaction to angry facial expressions is influenced by testosterone. The study tested whether exogenous testosterone modulates the personal distance (PD) humans prefer in a social threat context.

METHODS

82 healthy male participants underwent either transdermal testosterone (testosterone group) or placebo application (placebo group). Each participant performed a computerized stop-distance task before (T1) and 3.5h after (T2) treatment, during which they indicated how closely they would approach a human, animal or virtual character with varying emotional expression.

RESULTS

Men's PD towards humans and animals varied as a function of their emotional expression. In the testosterone group, a pre-post comparison indicated that the administration of 50mg testosterone was associated with a small but significant reduction of men's PD towards aggressive individuals. Men in the placebo group did not change the initially chosen PD after placebo application independent of the condition. However comparing the testosterone and placebo group after testosterone administration did not reveal significant differences. While the behavioral effect was small and only observed as within-group effect it was repeatedly and selectively shown for men's PD choices towards an angry woman, angry man and angry dog in the testosterone group. In line with the literature, our findings in young men support the influential role of exogenous testosterone on male's approach behavior during social confrontations.

Single dose testosterone administration alleviates gaze avoidance in women with Social Anxiety Disorder

Gaze avoidance is one of the most characteristic and persistent social features in people with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). It signals social submissiveness and hampers adequate social interactions. Patients with SAD typically show reduced testosterone levels, a hormone that facilitates socially dominant gaze behavior. Therefore we tested as a proof of principle whether single dose testosterone administration can reduce gaze avoidance in SAD. In a double-blind, within-subject design, 18 medication-free female participants with SAD and 19 female healthy control participants received a single dose of 0.5mg testosterone and a matched placebo, at two separate days. On each day, their spontaneous gaze behavior was recorded using eye-tracking, while they looked at angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions. Testosterone enhanced the percentage of first fixations to the eye-region in participants with SAD compared to healthy controls. In addition, SAD patients' initial gaze avoidance in the placebo condition was associated with more severe social anxiety symptoms and this relation was no longer present after testosterone administration. These findings indicate that single dose testosterone administration can alleviate gaze avoidance in SAD. They support theories on the dominance enhancing effects of testosterone and extend those by showing that effects are particularly strong in individuals featured by socially submissive behavior. The finding that this core characteristic of SAD can be directly influenced by single dose testosterone administration calls for future inquiry into the clinical utility of testosterone in the treatment of SAD.